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<br />or Foreign. Relatians dealing with salinity in areas where there <br />is 25 ar 30 inches af rainfall. Of caurse, if the moisture of <br />heaven, fresh and pure, is mixed with an equal amount of irrigatian <br />water, the salinity is cut in half. In the territary referred to, <br />the rainfall is 20 or 25 inches; but dawn in our deserts far years <br />at a time there is not enough rainfall to get down to. the graund. <br />"Mr. President, this is the simple fact: The experts are all <br />agreed that the present salinity af Lake Mead is abaut 7 SO parts <br />per millian. In 25 ar .30 years, due to. greater use in the upper <br />basin States, it will probably approach 1,000 parts per million. <br />That is fairly goad water for irrigation. That is what we in the <br />lawer basin hape to get for our first application of that water. <br />"The distinguished Senatar from Calorada reiterated that the <br />use af the water once, in the lower basin States, wauld nat <br />depreciate its quality very much. Let us see what the facts are, <br />as developed by the experts. To. obtain advice on this question, <br />I went to the Department of Agriculture. The department recom- <br />mended to me the man conSidered the most expert on salinity in <br />the United States, Suppose that, in Arizona, 4 acre-feet af <br />water, impregnated with salinity to. a degree of 1,000 parts per <br />million, were applied to an acre of ground. It must be under- <br />stoad that 3 af thase acre-fee:t wauld be taken up by the plants <br />and by evaparatian, and there wauld be approximately 1 acre-faot <br />af return flow. I origll1ally calculated that if the <)raund were not <br />becoming mare saline, the 1 acre-foot of return flow wauld have <br />to. carry as much salt uS had been carried by th8 original 4 acre- <br />feet, 0.1' four tim8S as much. So I thought that the water which <br />wauld come aft the Arizana iands would be impregnated with <br />4,000 parts of salt per million; and since water becomes non- <br />usable when it has 2,000 or 3, 000 par~~j)er millian,_.Qlc.o_ur,se _ ___ <br />I was disturbed. However, the experts showed me that I was <br />wrong, because aut of this salty water certain of the salts are <br />precipitated anta the soil. They are generally the harmless salts. <br />They are nat carried aut by the return flaw. <br />"Sa the actual records show that the kind of water being used <br />by Arizona wauld have its salinity increased, by one application <br />far irrigation, from a thausand purts to. 2,700 parts per million. <br />That is because 1 acre-foot of water wauld then have to. hald the <br />salt farmerly held in solutian by 4 acre-feet, less the amount of <br />salt precipitated in the land. Water with 2,700 parts per millian, <br />af caurse, is unusable water, and Mexico. will never take it." <br /> <br />On page 3175 Senator Downey again expressed hlS concern over the <br /> <br />quality questian. It was his pasition that in spite of the claim of the State <br /> <br />B 41 <br />